[HN Gopher] The Year of McDonald's
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The Year of McDonald's
Author : secondary
Score : 37 points
Date : 2024-12-16 21:25 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.thefp.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.thefp.com)
| tetris11 wrote:
| One of my favourite places in the world is this one particular
| McDonalds in Camberwell that's open 24 hrs.
|
| On a Friday night at 2am, its full of people from all walks of
| life - from delivery workers taking a 5 minute break, to wedding
| party socialites looking for a quick food fix since everything
| else is closed - and they're all there for the exact same reason
| and are sitting next to each other without any tension or
| fanfare.
|
| There really is a certain community magic to it.
| chasd00 wrote:
| Sounds like a Waffle House an hour after last call except
| replace "without any tension or fanfare" with "overwhelming
| aggressive unpredictability" hah.
| giraffe_lady wrote:
| In my home town the joke was waffle house is for when you
| want denny's but don't know how to fight.
| paulpauper wrote:
| McDonald's functions as sort of public square, which is missing
| elsewhere in society, as the employees are to detached or
| inattentive to care if people are loitering too long. Same for
| Starbucks.
| Lammy wrote:
| I got "in" to McDonald's when I was studying the Freeway revolts
| and realized how skilled McDonalds Corporate were at real estate
| speculation way back in the 1950s. In San Francisco there was
| (key word: _was_ ) a McDonald's along every corridor that would
| have been more highly traveled had the freeways been built as
| planned: Haight & Stanyan, Turk & Golden Gate, Van Ness (this one
| was actually unironically beautiful, look it up). I would get
| breakfast at that former Haight location on my way to work every
| morning, Bacon Egg & Cheese biscuit and a large black coffee --
| my fav.
|
| Also recommended: "Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America"
| http://www.marciachatelain.com/ (2021 Pulitzer Prize winner)
| Waterluvian wrote:
| When I was quite young (maybe 5-9) my family did a lot of trips
| to the U.S. for my dad's IBM server training stuff. Something
| that made me anxious was the border crossing because my dad got
| all serious and told us to be quiet and it felt intimidating.
|
| As a consequence of being so young I couldn't distinguish between
| Customs and a toll booth so they made me anxious too. And one day
| we were driving up to what looked like a huge toll booth or
| Customs stop and I was terribly anxious until we got close enough
| and it was this super weird McDonald's. A gas station below,
| restaurant on top. It had such an impact on me that I spent the
| years after being hopeful any time I saw customs or tool booths
| that it was this fantastical McDonald's.
|
| Also I once went to a McDonald's with model trains running along
| the top of the walls. That was super cool.
| caseyohara wrote:
| My favorite unique McDonald's is in Freeport, Maine.
|
| > When the town wouldn't allow the fast-food behemoth to build
| a new restaurant, they put one inside an 1850 home.
|
| > The year was 1984. McDonald's was looking to build a location
| in the town of Freeport, Maine. There was only one problem: The
| Freeport building design restrictions were strict, and the town
| wanted the fast-food giant to maintain the area's aesthetic. In
| other words: No golden arches. McDonald's solution? Remodel an
| existing structure.
|
| Pictures here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mcdonalds-
| freeport-mansi...
| bbarnett wrote:
| What a classy McDonalds, makes me feel like I'd need a tie.
| munk-a wrote:
| What a bizarre statement about a place of business that's tried
| to irrelevance themselves into non-existence this year. Fast food
| pricing is now equal or beyond the prices of quality food with
| non-chain fast food (i.e. doner/local pizza joints) becoming the
| new affordable option.
| jajko wrote:
| Yes but they are not everywhere. As much as hate the below
| mediocre junk McD mostly produces, sometimes they are the only
| place open for miles around.
| markus_zhang wrote:
| Costco is my new restaurant. Food is more fresh and costs way
| less.
| paulpauper wrote:
| but not as convenient as McDonald's . fewer locations, need
| membership afik for food
| markus_zhang wrote:
| Yeah that's true. Fortunately we have one 15 mins of drive
| away.
| calmworm wrote:
| If only they had a $1.50 hamburger option!
| AnimalMuppet wrote:
| I have thought that, if you're on a road trip, Costco could
| be pretty good. Stop there, get a rotisserie chicken, feeds
| 2-4 people, costs $5. (I mean, you still need a trash bag,
| paper plates, and a large number of napkins...) And you were
| going to stop for gas anyway, and they have that.
| kube-system wrote:
| Maybe at mid-day during the week. On Sunday, the Costco
| parking lot is the last place I'd want to be if I'm trying
| to get miles on the road.
| markus_zhang wrote:
| Yeah that sucks. It really depends on the time.
| markus_zhang wrote:
| Yeah man, almost perfect, and they have desserts too! Sadly
| no coffee...well just packaged ones.
| kube-system wrote:
| McDonalds is financially quite healthy. They've never been the
| cheapest nor the best quality. McDonalds excels in having food
| at the right place at the right time and a minimal effort to
| transact.
|
| If you are traveling at any random place in the US, and you are
| in a hurry and want something you are familiar with, McDonalds
| is the most likely thing you will come across first. There is a
| huge cognitive anchoring this has.
| observationist wrote:
| Don't forget consistency - you can get chicken nuggets and
| barbecue sauce and french fries that taste recognizably the
| same at any of their 42,000 restaurants. The food preparation
| and storage, shipping logistics, and other underpinnings of
| their consistency trick are admirable, even if the other
| issues with fast food detract from the overall picture.
| kube-system wrote:
| That's what I was hinting at "something you are familiar
| with" and "effort to transact". People hopping off the
| highway for a quick stop with their family don't want to
| mull over SlopBowl's menu for 10 minutes, even if it's
| better quality... they know if they roll into a McD, they
| can grab a happy meal and the kid won't complain.
| namibj wrote:
| But a strawberry shake in the US tastes horrible to those
| used to the DE version.
| ethbr1 wrote:
| Taco Bell: Te parezco un chiste?
| kube-system wrote:
| Taco bell has significantly fewer locations, it's less
| likely that your next exit has one.
| ethbr1 wrote:
| Out of curiosity, apparently US totals are Subway 20k,
| Starbucks 15k, McD's 13k, Dunkin 9k, Taco Bell / Burger
| King 7k, Dominos / Pizza Hut / Wendy's 6k, then others.
| kube-system wrote:
| Subway is a good reminder that location matters too.
| While they have a lot of locations, they are not nearly
| as selective in where they go.
| yodsanklai wrote:
| > If you are traveling at any random place in the US
|
| And not only in the US. McDonald's is big in some European
| countries like France. In small towns, McDonald's may be the
| only option available past a certain hour.
|
| My relationship with the company has evolved though. When we
| were teenagers, we loved McDonald's. It was also not
| available everywhere and quite novel, so we would sometimes
| drive a long way with my mom just to go there. Nowadays, I'm
| much more concern about my health so it's really one of the
| last option I'd consider. It feels they have become dirtier
| than what they used to be though, but maybe that's
| subjective.
| ghaff wrote:
| I basically never eat at McDonald's personally but I expect a
| lot of people just default to it as the predictable option
| that isn't too bad for their tastes and doesn't cost too
| much.
| alwa wrote:
| Have you spent much time in their dining rooms? Niche as Chris
| Arnade's expertise may be, it sure seems hard-earned:
|
| _> I can answer both questions. I've spent over a decade
| sitting in McDonald's all over the United States--I believe
| I've visited over 500 franchises. Roughly half the
| conversations I had for my 2019 book Dignity took place in a
| McDonald's--in fact, my working title was, Everything You Want
| to Know About America Can Be Learned in a McDonald's, because I
| sincerely believe this._
| mcculley wrote:
| I have been wondering if this should be seen as a success of
| laws raising minimum wage. In some states, the rapid rise of
| minimum wage means that it is no longer viable to have someone
| else make a sandwich for you. Isn't that a victory for those
| who want equality?
| amelius wrote:
| Reminds me how one-type-fits-all smartphones are sold as
| premium devices.
| tokinonagare wrote:
| It's indeed crazy how expensive McDo meals had become. When I
| was a student I used to eat 2/3 hamburgers 1EUR each, and
| something the 2EUR local thing too. Now those doubled or
| tripled. A maxi best of is _at least 12EUR_. Sorry but at this
| price I 'll eat anywhere else. The only thing I'm eating these
| days is the 5EUR menu with 4 items in it, the happy meal at
| 4EUR when there's Pokemon cards as toy and the Mac First when
| it is at 6EUR (spoiler: it's often closer to 7EUR in most place
| now).
|
| That being said even kebabs are a luxury now. What used to be
| 3EUR or 5EUR with fries and drink is now 7/8EUR alone, or 12EUR
| in combo with fries or drink. Well, one more think I'll eat way
| less than before.
| shreddit wrote:
| I once worked for two hours out of a mc donalds, even had a 30
| minute teams meeting (it was completely empty at 10 in the
| morning) and the wifi was quite fast
| paulpauper wrote:
| _Then, this week, there was the news that Luigi Mangione, the
| alleged assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson_
|
| Isn't it pretty obvious it's him? Is there any possibility he was
| framed or something.
|
| McDonald's plays a big role because it also happens to be
| extremely popular and has many locations all over America. It's
| brand is an iconic and big as ever.
|
| It also shows how America has a sort of love-hate relationship
| with fast-food. We know it's unhealthy and overpriced but we
| cannot stop eating it.
| nickvec wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presumption_of_innocence
| Dosenpfand wrote:
| Innocent until proven guilty.
| alwa wrote:
| The people who would know that best are the people
| investigating, prosecuting, and judging him. In real life, not
| through rumor and media (social or otherwise).
|
| I'm not aware of evidence to the contrary, but then I wouldn't
| be, because I'm not involved with the investigation or the
| trial. Neither is most anyone commenting publicly right now.
|
| It's alleged until it's proven, and in the US that's a formal
| process that concludes with a guilty plea or verdict.
| wk_end wrote:
| It's an established practice in journalism to describe accused
| who haven't been convicted as "alleged" criminals, regardless
| of how damning the evidence is.
|
| The legal basis of this is a fear of libel lawsuits. But I
| think even when a libel lawsuit is extremely unlikely the
| practice is still followed - out of an abundance of caution,
| out of convention, or perhaps out of principle - that is, out
| of deference to the presumption of innocence on a fundamental
| level.
| bigstrat2003 wrote:
| Journalists generally say "alleged", even when it's real
| obvious someone did the crime, in order to limit liability.
| They don't want to risk the off chance that the person is found
| not guilty and then comes after the journalists for libel.
| sneak wrote:
| Precisely zero reliable evidence has been presented that ties
| him to the place or the hit, as of right now.
|
| It's anything but obvious. What is obvious is that NYC law
| enforcement had tremendous pressure to apprehend and prosecute
| a suspect quickly, and that they had precisely nothing to go on
| before he was miraculously identified by a random person. You
| may also recall that there is no imagery of the assassin's face
| during the hit.
|
| Of course someone who planned such a hit so carefully would
| keep carrying around the murder weapon for several days, across
| state lines, as well as a printed hardcopy of a manifesto
| establishing motive (he worked in IT). Very little of what the
| police have claimed thus far has made any logical sense.
| calmworm wrote:
| Obvious how?
| rdtsc wrote:
| > At the end of October, there was the viral, and controversial,
| Trump campaign stop, where he "worked" for 30 minutes at a
| McDonald's in Pennsylvania. Then, this week, there was the news
| that Luigi Mangione, the alleged assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO
| Brian Thompson, was caught in a McDonald's--also, coincidentally,
| in Pennsylvania--because he was spotted by a group of morning
| regulars and employees
|
| Didn't Kamala Harris also work at McDonalds
| https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/01/kamala-harris-on-working-at-...?
| Pretty sure Trump's stunt was because of that. But I guess it's
| fair to assume everyone who followed that story knows the
| context. Or perhaps the author is more sympathetic to one
| candidate and would rather not air unproven claims:
| https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/harris-mcdonalds-college/
| anonu wrote:
| Trump was an actual campaign stop photo op... Harris didn't do
| a McD photo op. So not clear on your point.
|
| Also Trump rode in a garbage truck around the same time. Was he
| one upping Harris? Or just trying to appeal to the working
| class? Probably the latter...
| gowld wrote:
| The garbage-truck photo op was Trump's a followup to his
| campaign calling Puerto Rico "garbage", and in particular to
| Biden calling that behavior "garbage".
| rdtsc wrote:
| > So not clear on your point.
|
| I just meant that an article, claiming to go for a deep dive
| on how McDonald's is part of the new American zeitgeist,
| mentions one presidential candidate, and the CEO murderer,
| but doesn't mention the other presidential candidate.
|
| https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/01/kamala-harris-on-working-
| at-... is just from a few months ago.
|
| > "It was not a small job," Harris told Ruhle. "There are
| people who work at McDonald's in our country who are trying
| to...raise families and pay rent."
|
| Just seemed like an odd omission, that's all.
| santoshalper wrote:
| Not really. Free Press is only pretending to be journalism.
| In an article defending JK Rowling, they describe people
| who are upset with her views on transgender rights as
| "maniacs, who are then flattered by cowards". It's a
| partisan rag.
| bhouston wrote:
| McDonald's has also seen a major boycott because of its Israeli
| branch's support for the Israeli actions in Gaza:
|
| https://fortune.com/2024/07/30/mcdonalds-gaza-boycott-israel...
|
| Apparently it was so bad that global McDonalds bought back all
| the Israeli franchises.
| gowld wrote:
| McDonald's stock is up 20% since Oct 7, 2023
|
| Sales growth slowed a bit, but the boycott effort was a
| temporary scare to the business that didn't have significant
| impact on sales long term.
| santoshalper wrote:
| The author is really laying the populist manipulation on thick.
| After about two paragraphs, I felt as greasy as a McDonald's hash
| brown.
| erulabs wrote:
| > These communities are the flowers growing between the cracks of
| the cement parking lot: a reminder that life survives, and often
| thrives, in the harshest environments, such as the modern world
|
| Lovely writing here. I am fascinated by the idea that the
| porousness of any system is its lifeline or even possibly its
| great enabler.
|
| There's a legend that during the Chinese revolution, extremely
| rural and difficult to travel to villages simply lied about their
| yearly rice yield, and thus were taxed less and avoided what
| would have sent them into the same starvation cycle as other
| areas, and this enabled the Maoist system to survive much longer
| than it would have otherwise. Similar stories from Stalist
| Russia, but the idea isn't limited to totalitarianism; as the
| story notes it applies to our paved-over modern American life as
| well.
|
| Contrary to the article, I somewhat feel that our current world
| is far too porous: we lack virtually any structure; we feel
| adrift rather than locked up. A coffee meetup in a McDonalds is
| an attempt to build a community in a cultural ghost-town, not a
| rebellion against perfect order.
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